An Update on Indiana's Working Women

For every dollar the average Hoosier man earns, the Hoosier woman earns
just two quarters, one dime, a nickel and three pennies. The following
highlights this wage gap and other statistics concerning Indiana’s
working women (those working full-time year-round).

These data are from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Bureau of Labor
Statistics and are based on reference year 2003 unless otherwise noted.
The American Community Survey is a household survey of 800,000 households
nationwide with a time series beginning in 2000 for states. The Bureau
of Labor Statistics data are based on estimates from the Current Population
Survey of 60,000 households each month. Census 2000 data were collected
on a one-in-six household sample for earnings and education (the long
form).

Working Women

Of the 2.4 million women age 16 and older in Indiana, 62 percent
are in the labor force.

In 2003, Hoosier women working full-time and year-round had median
earnings of $27,207, compared to a median of $39,849 for men. That is
a wage gap of $12,642. To put it in other ways, the ratio of women’s
full-time earnings to that of men’s is .68 to 1, or 68 cents to
the dollar (see Figures 1 and 2).

Indiana’s working women are well-educated: 53 percent of them
have at least some college or higher levels of education, such as bachelor’s
degrees and master’s degrees (see Figure 3).

More than 50 percent of full-time working Hoosier women work in lower-paying
occupations (Indiana’s BLS median wages are shown in parentheses):
24 percent in office or administrative support ($24,120); 19 percent
in service jobs, such as health care support ($21,110), food preparation
or serving ($15,080) or personal care services ($17,840); and 12 percent
in sales ($19,530).

Table 1 illustrates how Indiana’s full-time working women compare
to those in surrounding states. Earnings in Indiana and Michigan may
be affected by the influence of high-wage auto jobs held mostly by men.

Working Mothers in 2000

Seventy-three percent of Indiana women with children under 18 were
in the labor force.

Children with single mothers: 79 percent of those children’s
mothers were in the labor force.

Thirty percent of single mothers with children under 18, and 42 percent
of single mothers with children under 5, lived in poverty (see Figure
4).

Carol O. Rogers
Associate Director, Indiana Business Research Center,
Kelley School of Business, Indiana University